March 11-15 was classified employee appreciation week for public schools. I made a public statement at the school board meeting on the 13th that many people have said is something the public needs to hear as well.
What I reveal is only a small glimpse into many issues facing paraeducators in the Kent School District. My statement mainly addresses conditions for elementary paraeducators working in similar programs. I’m sure that secondary paraeducators have other challenges.
And as a whole, Kent School District paraeducators have been working under a contract that began in 2008 and should have expired at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year. We have had five or six different district representatives to bargain with – each time essentially beginning from scratch.
The essence of my message is the same:
I work at a Kent elementary school in tiered intervention, English language learners, and inclusive education (special ed). On Oct. 1 of this year, I will have been with the Kent School District for 10 years. Having acknowledged Classified Appreciation Week (March 11-15), I have to say that I’ve never felt less appreciated by the district.
Many of us paraeducators are not given adequate time or resources to do an excellent job. Every day we provide instruction or support for up to 10 different groups, ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade, with little or in some cases, no time to even familiarize ourselves with lessons before we present them to students.
We must use curricula for which we’ve received no training, little training or training not geared for a paraeducator audience. Teacher manuals and supplemental materials are sometimes provided, but not in all curricula.
We find it increasingly necessary to use email or other computer programs for communication with supervisors, colleagues and teachers; to use online applications to enter sick days and register for professional development; to do student assessment and enter student date electronically.
Last fall’s Tech Expo and much of the district training that is open to paraeducators would have been great to attend, but participants are required to bring their own laptops. Guess what? Paraeducators in this district are not assigned their own computer.
I’ll be blunt: the message is “you don’t care.”
In fact, at pre-service training in August, inclusive education paraeducators were told to be “an invisible presence” in education. I can’t tell you how demoralizing that statement was. Not only are we poorly paid with no increase since 2008; asked to provide quality instruction with precious little time and resources; we are further denigrated by being told to be invisible.
I am not invisible to the student who wrote for her writing assessment last year that her favorite part of kindergarten was Ms. Cromwell’s reading group.
My colleague is not invisible to the graduating senior who came by our school with one of those precious graduation tickets for the paraeducator.
I am not invisible to the parents of the child that I was one-on-one with for four years who wrote to me saying, “I hope you will always know what an incredible difference you made for (our child) during these years – for our whole family, really. You were a gift from God sent to us.”
I am not invisible to my principal or supervising intervention, ELL and IP teachers who know that my contribution means that students get personal attention every day.
This district is proud to say they are committed to inclusion for all students. Kent School District, will you make that commitment to all staff? Will you include us as full professional members of the team?
The district’s own mission statement is “to successfully prepare all students for their future.” Kent School District, will you make that commitment to your instructional support staff? Give us the time, the resources and the support to be successfully prepared for our students so that our students can be successfully prepared for their future.
I ask that Kent residents please support us in our efforts to secure a strong and fair bargained agreement with the district. It is long overdue.
– Marie Cromwell
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